Sunday, December 04, 2011

Q&A : MyView Judge – Shane RJ Walter

You work across many areas - books, music videos, branding, TV, short films, animation, installations to name a few.... do you have a favorite?

I love the diversity of my job, the fact I do work across all these different areas gives me a different day each day - and I just continue to learn. It also gives me an unusual perspective on the creative industries and how one can transfer skills, ideas and talent across these platforms and areas.

My main motivating factors are creating things that did not exist before and doing things that make a difference. So …. producing a work that makes a difference is something that I enjoy working in the most – to give one example (and there are many), a project we collaborated with MTV international on: onedotzero Bloom, a new talent quest initiated in 2007 and first delivered in early 2008, which actively sought out and encouraged new talents to experiment with film making for the first time.

The first wave of the internationalised project focussed on aspects of identity pertinent to people and the cities they live in, which profoundly facilitated cultural understanding and creative exchange around the world. The initial response followed by the incredibly high standard of work finally submitted, was above the expectations of all producers involved.

The films are currently on tour across the UK and around the globe - in addition to broadcast in MTV networks internationally.

onedotzero has been going for 15 years. Where will digital art be in another 15 years?

I’m not sure about 15 years but here is a little insight into the near future….

There is a definite digital culture now and it feels as if we are living in very exciting times. There have been massive transformations in the last 15 years in so many industries - not just the arts - due to digital technology. This is all backdrop to an ever-evolving creative playground where art forms have collided, hybrid creators have risen and more importantly the appetite of the audience has skewed to a more progressive and diverse entertainment experience.

I think we are now at the beginnings of a new true revolution as people who have grown up with computers and digital tools are reshaping our “tomorrow world.” Cross-media thinking, web 2.0+ attitude, communities and collaborative production are all there now to offer new forms of art and commerce that mix and meld cinema with clubbing, theatre with photography, graphics with live music, opera with computer gaming, architecture with software development.

Any organization starting today or wanting to be around in the next ten years needs to embrace this environment and strive to push forward and not merely ride off the coat tails of innovators.

A lot of this thinking is hinged on the convergence and collaboration ethos that onedotzero has championed for over a decade and a half. The idea of open source and sharing is a recent development that is now being taken more seriously by larger brands and companies. This open and collaborative approach has spread much further as a means to approach design, development, and new production models as the world wakes up to the value of sharing and openness.

I also have seen the rise of a new kind of creative force – that of the Coder. Coders or programmers were always relegated to the back room geek dens and not considered to be ‘creative’ types. Now, code is in its purest form is a new raw material that artists and designers can shape and sculpt in a myriad ways to create interactive art, generative designs and stunning motion sequences.

People are creating and sharing their own tools such as the open source programming language. There’s also environment and dev kits like Arduino, OpenFrameworks and Processing, for people who want to create images, animations, and interactions.

Cinema was the artform of the 20th century and has huge widespread critical and popular appeal. Its recipe of storytelling in sound and image gave a heady mix of escapism in a darkened room that really did export us and transcend our immediate surroundings.

Now I believe the experience of the 21st century is one that will be much more fragmented but will contain a convergence of interaction and passiveness, gaming and cinema, immersive and crowd based experiences, architectural and virtual environments.

Your advice to making a great MyView entry?

In all work I look for a distinctive voice and a unique vision and original approach.

For MyView there is a real opportunity to be bold. It is more powerful to relay a simple bold idea that communicates well in this short format. For short length films try not to cram too may ideas or concepts in – this could end up being a bit messy. There are different elements of communication and style from cinematography to graphics, the use of sound and voice over etc – how these are combined and how they serve the idea/story is key. Make the film as long as you need to get the idea across – no longer, no shorter.

About

My View is a micro documentary competition for anyone who wants to be seen and heard.
You make a 1 to 5 minute digital film all about renewable energy, we’ll get the world to watch it and you can win major cash prizes.